This newsletter is getting easier and easier to write. My kids feed me a lot
of the funny stuff, readers write gobs of great letters and now readers are
practically writing items for me.
Take Randy, who told me a great story about a keynote speaker at the Microsoft
Small Business summit who
probably won't be invited back. Julie Clark said, "When you think of
tissues, you think of Kleenex. When you think of computers, you think IBM."
Posted by Doug Barney on March 20, 20070 comments
There's a hot new rumor that
Google
is prepping a mobile Internet phone. If the rumor isn't just phony-baloney,
then I've got some big questions. Can Google actually build great hardware?
What kinds of software innovations are possible? And what kind of connectivity
can one expect if the Internet is the data source? Does it rely upon wireless
broadband from companies such as Cingular and Verizon?
Meanwhile, Microsoft, whose Smartphone software drives a good many phones,
is moving
into small-business telephony with a new IP-phone system that will be built
by third parties. The key to the system is letting the people in the small or
remote office manage the phones, rather than calling in IT or telecom pros.
This is a godsend when you want to move that backstabbing worker in the office
next to the gas leak.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 20, 20070 comments
The battle between network giant Cisco and software colossus Microsoft over
video and Web conferencing has been brewing for a while. Last fall, for instance,
Microsoft announced plans to build a mobile video conferencing device. That
same week Cisco jumped in, announcing a product that increases the frame rates
of Web video so we won't get a headache watching herky-jerky video.
Now Cisco is really getting serious, vastly overpaying for the privilege
of owning WebEx, which competes with Microsoft's Live Meeting.
WebEx made less than $50 million in profit last year, but somehow the math
whizzes at Cisco reckon the company is worth north of $3 billion.
That's, what, 60 times earnings? I hope WebEx has some hot stuff in its labs!
Which do you like better, WebEx or Live Meeting? Let us know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on March 19, 20070 comments
I never thought of IBM as a leading company for developers. Sure, it has all
the Cobol code-monkeys pretty well sewn up, but it doesn't have the footprint
of a Microsoft, Borland or Sun.
Yet somehow, IBM managed to get 5.7 million people to register for its developerWorks
Web site, which it revamped last week. The new news is Developers Exchange,
a set of areas where coders can share code and programmers can share programs.
We're looking to add some of these features to Web sites for Redmond
Developer News and Visual Studio Magazine.
Is this a good idea? And if so, how should we do it? Let me know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on March 19, 20070 comments
Microsoft is
close
to shipping Expression Blend, a tool to help developers more easily design
and build Vista and XP applications. The software works with Visual Studio.
By the way, did I tell you that my group now owns Visual Studio Magazine?
Take a look at it here
and don't be afraid to bookmark this puppy.
And if you're a software developer, or just like to tinker, check out our new
Web site and twice-monthly magazine Redmond
Developer News. Don't be afraid to bookmark this bad boy, too.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 19, 20070 comments
Going to Jupiter and back seems like a long trip, but not if you're analyst
Michael Gartenberg.
Gartenberg recently left a cushy job at JupiterResearch to join Microsoft as
an evangelist. Apparently, Mike doesn't quite have the necessary Redmond religion;
he no sooner got there than he turned
around and went back to Jupiter (here's
Mike's blog).
I defended Gartenberg against critics who called him a sellout and a corporate
shill (some of my best friends are sellouts and corporate shills!). Now I don't
know what to think. I do, though, wonder what the heck happened during those
few days he spent at Microsoft!
Posted by Doug Barney on March 15, 20070 comments
Recently, I received praise from the FoxPro community for writing a small number
of sentences in praise of the product.
But I apparently made on error, arguing that the loyal FoxPro user base would
not let Microsoft kill off the product. I
was wrong.
Visual FoxPro 9, due this year, will be the last of what Microsoft believes
is a legacy tool (it has its roots in the old dBase market), but what users
consider a powerful, controllable tool with plenty of third-party support and
a massive library of custom applications.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 15, 20070 comments
I love an underdog, especially one that pokes the big dog in the eye, which
is exactly what AMD has done to Intel.
AMD was on the financial ropes when it decided to stop just building Intel
clones and push the envelope with 64-bit machines that kick server and PC gaming
butt.
You can only push Intel so far. Sure, the processing giant fought back with
faster clock speeds and a more aggressive multicore strategy. But what Intel
can really control is the cost of volume production and pricing.
AMD is now in
a world of Wall Street and balance sheet hurt, and may need to be bought
or find a new investor. I know a few dozen teenage gamers that will kick in
their allowance!
Posted by Doug Barney on March 14, 20070 comments
Miss that interview with Bill O'Reilly on "The Daily Show"? Just
go to The YouTube and watch The Video.
That all might end soon, now that The
Viacom is suing The YouTube, now owned by The Google, for posting The Copyrighted
Content without giving The Viacom The Big Bucks.
And we are talking about a lot of content, as The Viacom runs The Comedy Central,
the now nearly music video-free MTV (can anyone over the age of 12 watch their
horrible reality shows?) and The VH1 -- which actually shows a video every now
and again.
I happen to think The Viacom is right, although I personally enjoy watching
The Purloined Viacom Video on The YouTube.
What's your take? Let us know at [email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on March 14, 20070 comments
Longtime ally Quest Software last week
agreed
to license Microsoft communication protocols under the exact same terms
the European Union found so expensive and egregious.
Microsoft, however, claims that since Quest was so willing to sign the agreement
and pay the royalties, it can't be a bad deal.
Microsoft has argued that its royalty rates are far below those of competitors.
But at over 5 percent of new revenues, it seems a tad steep to me. But what
do I know -- I don't write software, I only make it crash!
Posted by Doug Barney on March 14, 20070 comments
Reports have it that Apple is working on a line of subnotebooks, a class of
machines it has never built before. These machines will have a scaled-down version
of Mac OS and
use
flash drives in place of hard drives.
Could be the perfect traveling companion. Whadda you think? Let me know at
[email protected].
Posted by Doug Barney on March 13, 20070 comments
This week, the Dynamics faithful, largely resellers and customers, flocked to
sunny San Diego to
learn
how to sell and use the line of ERP software, and to see what's new in the
world of Microsoft enterprise apps.
Many of the new programs are aimed at recruiting resellers and helping them
to, er, sell the software. But there are also new versions of the software,
which unfortunately still represents three to four largely overlapping tools.
Microsoft also showed off some new client tools that work off of Office and
SharePoint, not only making it easy for clients to use the software, but --
with low pricing -- easier to buy, as well.
Posted by Doug Barney on March 13, 20070 comments